The Famous Four discover the NorthWest Passage; Beddington Saturday riders 17 January

It has been freezing or raining for weeks except this week for the club rides on Wednesday and Saturday.  Yet on a coldish but sunny day folk cried off.

Thus there was only the core of Beddington Park riders, the Famous Four, at the Pavilion Cafe but this meant we could go on a ride entirely of our own choosing, and with a full evening diary we decided that good old Elmers End was the place for us; the other option being Merton Abbey Mills, but that would involve slipping and sliding on the saturated banks of the mighty River Wandle.

So we stuck to the tarmac to exit Beddington Park.  The traffic seemed inordinately heavy around Purley Way but otherwise the trip through central Croydon, past the Croydon Stadium and through South Norwood Country Park was fine.  Elmers End, though, was as clogged with traffic as we have ever seen it; no matter, we got to Branching Out, where for the price of a chat with Maggie a lovely fellow vacated his table so we could sit together indoors.

The route home was familiar through Shirley Oaks and we nearly but not quite forgot to take a photo.

On Gladeside, between Elmers End and Shirley Oaks 

It was heading west out of Croydon that it got a bit interesting.  There was an horrendous traffic jam on Waddon Road with several buses in front of us on a busy but narrow road and as there were only four of us we elected to go exploring.  So we took the path by the tramway North from Waddon Park and crossed the Purley Way at the Sainsbury's lights, hoping to find a way through the industrial estate to the Asda car park and Beddington Lane.  We had nearly given up when Maggie saw a path behind the fence and our leader remembered passing the entrance, so we retraced our steps and ventured on this path, which turned and twisted between the car parks and warehouses and spewed us out in Beddington Village.  Thus we had discovered a hitherto unexplored way through territory we thought we knew like the back of our handlebars.  

We were so pleased with ourselves; why go to Majorca or Japan for cycling adventures when such excitement is awaiting discovery on your own doorstep?  We're going to be spending our Summer holiday meandering through the Beddington Park Industrial Estate to seek out any other unknown routes. 

Invitation to take part in the 2025 Photo Competition

During the year of excellent rides in  2025 I know that several of you have taken excellent photos. Therefore please feel warmly invited to take part in the 2025 Photo Competition via this link to the invitation which I have posted on the Wayfarers blog.

The invitation includes instructions on how to submit photos via my Dropbox. 

Yours in anticipation

Tim C

Your 2025 mileage scores please

This is a request to submit your mileage totals for the last twelve months (1st Jan. 2025 to 31st Dec. 2025) for consideration towards the annual awards for the greatest distances cycled. Your scores will be entered into the Big Spreadsheet where, since the dawn of the 21st century, the precious records of your accomplishments in the club have been maturing.

There are two shiny trophies, one for the woman who has cycled more miles than any other woman and one for the man with the highest mileage amongst the men.

And we have a special award, the Mark Roy Trophy, for the person recording the largest increase in mileage over the previous year. So anyone who has posted their mileage for both 2025 and 2024 is eligible. 

To summarise the rules, your miles must have been clocked up whilst riding your bicycle, tricycle, tandem or eBike on or off road. Mileages achieved on turbo trainers, Watt bikes or any other static contraption don't count. We know that this is something of a blow to members who have been riding through virtual alpine landscapes with Zwift or Rouvy but we only consider miles actually, rather than virtually, travelled.

For the competition, contenders for the prizes must be regular riders in the club though we are happy to collect mileage data for everyone who is a paid up member of CTC South West London. And we wish to continue recording mileages for our several members who ride eBikes.

If you are curious at all about how many miles you ride in the course of a year please start recording your distances for 2026 in a diary or spreadsheet.

Just one word of warning; several riders who use a GPS enabled device such as a Garmin, or smartphones running apps like Strava or RideWithGPS have experienced rides when their devices stop communicating with the satellites, sometimes for quite a while, and this can lead to totally unreliable data. So please verify the accuracy of your data. The evidence of this known problem is a long straight bee-line between two points on your ride where you know the road really had many twists and turns.

Fixie Dave's Garmin nodded off for a while with this result!

In my opinion this is not a problem which is specific to Strava or other phone app but is to do with the phone and its own software, memory resources perhaps. This erroneous data can also accumulate if you have hopped on a train with your bike but forgotten to stop recording 😏. Fancy doing that!

Please write to me with your total mileage:

Tim Court (Associate Bean Counter*)

We hope to be able to present the prizes in our traditional awards ceremony at the Annual Lunch, this year on Wednesday 4th March.

A very Happy New Year to you all and if you haven't been collecting your mileage scores please start now, from January 1st, 2026.

The Bean Counters need your numbers!

~ Tim C

*Nota Bene: The Bean Counting committee comprises Mick Arber and myself. Mick's primary source of fun is collecting the weekly attendance scores for Wayfarers and crunching the figures for all groups to identify the winners of the attendance trophies.

Nonsuch 1-o-clockers No-Mates to Molesey, 27 December.

A beautiful but cold winter's day and despite it being in the middle of the festive season, sixteen riders turned up at the Mansion for the 1-o-clock ride, including Wendy, who had not been out with us for a long while and a cyclist to whom I was not introduced, and did not anyway come on the ride.

Steve W was there to lead so he and I agreed to end up at the scheduled destination, the Molsesey Boat Club, by our different routes and at a different pace.  We also agreed, since we were starting out in the same direction, that he would go first.

Off he set, and the majority followed him, including one or two riders I thought would have preferred to be in my group.  That left me with five to lead but once they realised it was me they all started making excuses.  The mysterious newcomer was there only to have his bike fixed.  Roger suddenly developed chain problems.  Somebody had earache and it was a cold day.  The fourth just went home.

That left Nigel and me, so off we set at a pace which might enable us to catch up the others, even though I was not sure what route Steve was taking.

Sure enough, as we got to the centre of Kingston, we intercepted them.  But across the bridge we were on our own again.  I pondered taking a short route and get in the tea queue before them but it was at that stage glorious winter sunshine and the attraction of Cobblers Walk and the Avenue across Bushy Park on such a day and the chance to spot a deer or a snow leopard was too much; we arrived at the Boat club in time to lock up and mount the stairs with the fast group's backmarker.  

Thirteen on the River

We tagged on with the group on the way home but peeled off for our own route through Surbiton and Old Malden.

Thanks, Nigel, for the company on the road.  Thanks, everyone else, for the company at tea.

Another day of sunshine. Beddington 1-o-clockers to Merton Abbey Mills, 20 December

Those of us planning a night clubbing (well, Christmas lights at Wakefield Place is as close as it gets at our age) were keen on a short, smart run this afternoon, which was a bit sad because the weather was perfect for Cycling, the low winter sun providing the only meterological hazard, the Wandle wildlife providing a zoological one.

The usual suspects, Ken, Anna, Roger and Sharon, joined Maggie and me for a quick trip through the Beddington Park Industrial Estate, Mitcham Common and Figge's Marsh to Colliers Wood and the M.E.D cafe.  This route was especially chosen not only to dispel any myth that London is not superior to Paris in architecture and ambience, but also to give certain parties the opportunity to complain about the price of the (delicious) pumpkin and ginger cake, and the paper cups.

Home along the Wandle where we encountered swarms of midges that came across in waves and spattered against our rainproofs and got inside our goggles and, for those unwise enough to afford them access, inside our mouths.  A low chlerestorol, low sugar snack, I am told.  Lower than the pumpkin cake.

At the Phipps Bridge folly

Thanks to everyone for their company and for kindly co-operating in our quest to get home and go out for the evening.

In case you wondered, the lights at Wakefield Place were superb.

A winter sun. Nonsuch 1-o-clockers to Molesey Boat Club, 13 December.

What a splendid day for cycling!  A little parky for those of us in shorts who were out on the road at 8.30 to watch their grandchildren play rugby, but clear and blue and dry.

We had a majority electing to avoid the scheduled trip up Box Hill, suggesting we stop at Leatherhead, or even at Ashtead, but another reasonable crowd had gathered at the Mansion House in Nonsuch Park, including a few I knew would want the full run.  Just as I was working out the logistics of a fairly full ride to Ashtead and waving the others on without a recognised leader, so Steve W turned up to solve my problem and Nigel suggested a moderate ride in the opposite direction, to Eight on the River.

As last week, Molesey is at the limits of a ride at modest pace if we are to enjoy tea and cake and get most people home before darkfall, but agreement was reached and off I went up the newly restructured path towards Sparrow Hill; Ken, Karen, Anna, Roger, Maggie, Lorraine following me and Nigel bringing up the rear.  Behind us we left the others chatting but they clearly did end up going on their ride.

A pleasant, incident-free ride wherein the only hazard was negotiating the fancy dress charity run by Wimbledon College students on the Thames Path.  It was almost too warm inside the rowing club cafe, and therefore difficult to leave.  We chose the straightest, swiftest road home through Bushy Park and across Kingston Bridge and after going our separate ways at Worcester Park, most will have got home before it was really dark.

Evening sun in Bushy Park

Good weather, good company, good cake and excellent tea.  What else is Saturday for, now the football has been rescheduled to maximise the armchair pound?

Between the showers; Nonsuch 1-o-clockers to Garson's Farm, 6 December 2025

The riders are many but the leaders are few, so with Nigel away for two weeks and with Steve W building his quadraceps in Tenerife and then off on family business I turned up to lead this week's scheduled ride to Garson's Farm.  Garson's Farm amply justifies the one-o-clock winter start; indeed it is at the limits of sensible rides in these darkest weekends of the year, but I figured we could get there and back, if not all the way to home, before night fell, if we did not dawdle.

The forecast had been pretty gloomy but the day up to lunchtime was a bright, windy autumnal one and we had a decent turnout.  The rising wind and the gathering clouds to the South West deterred none, so Stuart, Rob, Peter, John, Kasumi, Karen, Anna and Roger followed me at what for Beginners was a fairly decent pace through Ewell and Chessington North, Claygate and Esher and in no time at all we were zinging down Lammas Lane and then fighting the Christmas shopping crowds at the garden centre.

The rain threatened all the time but there were only a few delicate spots; we had skilfully timed our teabreak to accommodate the heavy shower.

Peter had forgotten his lights and Rob wanted to get to Rochester that evening, so they left afternoon tea before us, taking Stuart with them.  That left six of us to reclimb Lammas Lane and make our way home through Weston Green, Surbiton and Worcester Park, a ride interrupted only by a photo-stop at Weston Green and an unfortunate spill for Kasumi on St Marks Hill.  While we stuck together, though, we continued to enjoy fortune with the rain but on my way home alone I got a good soaking from Sutton onwards.

Karen looks wistfully towards home as the rain threatens

My indiscretion had been to fall to the temptation of cherry and coconut cake.  It was a huge slice, far too sweet and there was something just not right about it.  I ate it all partly because I thought it might fuel my effort up Lammas Hill.  By the time I'd got to Sutton I was fairly uncomfortable, each thought that returned to the cake increasing my nausea.  Thanks are due to the motorist on Westmead Road who, presumably perceiving my discomfort, attempted to help me through the assisted dying process but the very force of my expletives held him narrowly at bay.

Genuine thanks are due to the good company, and I expect that most riders got home to have their showers indoors.